We had planned a day out today and knowing that we had not one but two appointments with the vet this afternoon meant we could get up and get out and do something with my Aunt and Uncle.

The first appointment was to collect Minnie and get instructions on her on going care and the second appointment was for Charlie as we are concerned about his wound - we just can't see how it is ever going to heal although I have been reading about cat abscesses on the internet and apparently they can take weeks if not months.  I think we just want someone to tell us that it is progressing normally because we haven't got a clue.  We bought an 'Elizabeth' collar because we were told that we must stop him licking the affected area.  We have given him a 'jumper' to wear for part of the day just after we have cleaned out the wound and smeared with Dermagel.  There is no way Charlie would wear the collar so John came up with an alternative using some foam insulation tubing.  The grey one caused him no issues whatsoever but although he could not lick the abscess he had taken to licking the leg below and made it bald and sore - the mark two orange one was not so successful as he had it on for about two seconds in the car, removed it, wee'd and poo'd on it before we had gone about 500 yards!

We took a drive around the village to see what the state of the roads are because we are hopeful that we might walk down next week with J and D and have a meze in Finnikas - that would have been impossible this week but we had learned that the detritus has now been moved so whilst the road is not accessible by car it is passable on foot.  John parked up outside Stathmos and walked down to check the road and to see if we had any post.  We hope that the few little businesses in the centre of the village will manage to survive the upheaval otherwise we will have beautiful looking roads and nothing else.

We had decided upon a trip out along the coast towards Pomos and as we were in Kenny we went to find the ruins of the monastery which is tucked away in the forest at Gialgia.  It was a bit of a bumpy run but J and D thought it was well worth the discomfort.  As they said this was never somewhere they would have found otherwise!

Information about the monastery is as follows...

The Gialia Monastery (Georgian: ღალია, Ğalia; Greek: Γιαλιά) is the ruined medieval Georgian Orthodox monastery at the village of Gialia (Yialia), Paphos District, northwest Cyprus. The monastry is dedicated to the Virgin Mary (The Golden Virgin Mary of Gialia; Greek: Ιερά Μονή Παναγίας Χρυσογιαλιώτισσας, Panayia Chrysogialiotissa).

Located in a forest some five kilometers from the coast near the small town of Polis Chrysochous, the ruins were identified, in 1981, by the Georgian scholar Wachtang Djobadze of California State University on the basis of the medieval Georgian accounts. It was not, however, until 2006 that a systematic archaeological research followed after the Georgian and Cypriote governments agreed to jointly investigate the ruins.

The monastery is certainly attested in the twelfth century, when it was renovated at the behest of Queen Tamar of Georgia (1184-1213); and it has been suggested that it was in continuous existence at least since the end of the tenth century until it was abandoned in the fourteenth century and plundered and destroyed in the sixteenth. So far, the two main structures have been identified: the earlier Virgin church, and the later St. George's church dated probably to the eleventh and twelfth centuries respectively. Remains of Georgian paintings and inscriptions from the thirteen and fourteenth century have also survived.

From the monastery we headed up the road to the garden centre because J and D wanted to buy me something for the garden - I had hoped to find a Hosta but they didn't have any so I settled for a rather unusual bougainvillea which had green and white variegated leaves and little coral coloured flowers.  It appears to be a miniature and I think I will need to find a nice sheltered spot in the garden for it if it is to survive.  I am thinking that it can go in the big pot outside the guest bedroom should the plant that was in there not put in an appearance within the next week or so.

We had planned to stop at the new-ish beach bar at Turtle Tavern for a drink - they have Old Speckled Hen on tap and that is a favourite tipple of Uncle David's but as we headed back in that direction we were greeted by heavy rain and black skies and it is May - the weather has yet to settle - it doesn't particularly bother us but it isn't overly good for tourists.  We decided to head towards where the sun appeared to be shining which was over Neo Chorio and Latchi and get something to eat there.



They had had no rain in Latchi and fortunately had no rain whilst we ate our lunch which we were able to take outside sitting by the harbour watching the world and the boats go by.  It was very pleasant and our visitors seemed to enjoy their lunch.  Even though it is now a little busier it was hardly packed and lunch was a fairly quiet, relaxed affair and John and David enjoyed a couple of pints, Joyce a glass of wine and so I was driver taking us all back home before we had to collect up Charlie and head back down to Prodromi and the vets.

Minnie was first to be dealt with - a normally very timid cat at the best of times she does spend her life running on her knees which made it difficult for vet Susannah to judge her mobility and this was made even more difficult when she shot in under a moving examination table just out of our reach.  We eventually got her out and Susannah showed us that she still had a problem with her eye for which we have to administer drops but apart from severe bruising was ok.  We will never know what happened but our best guess is that it was a fall because if something had fallen on top of her causing her that much pain you cannot think that she would have been able to get out from under it.

Susannah checked on Charlie's wound which is actually looking better because the yellow dead skin bit has gone.  She shaved all round it and the part of his front leg that he is licking and gave him an anti-inflammatory shot and we got some stuff which should taste bitter if he licks it to put on his leg.  Poor boy threw up on the way home, a trip with had cat crying in stereo to accompany our journey.  It was all very stressful.

We had been concerned that Minnie might run off and go into hiding after her experience - this would have been normal behaviour for her but we were amazed when she settled back straight away, in fact she was very affectionate and embarked on a staring competition with my uncle trying to get his attention away from the football so that she could have a cuddle.  When the staring bore no satisfactory result she started tapping at him and head butting him until he gave in.  I am wondering if we got the right cat back!